Former NSSF Boss Jamwa Sentenced to 12 Years in Jail

The former Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund, David Chandi Jamwa, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail.

Last week the Anti Corruption Court found Jamwa guilty causing the NSSF a loss of three billion shillings.

The crime was committed between September and November 2001 when Jamwa sold premature NSSF bonds to Crane Bank.

Delivering the sentencing this morning, Justice John Bosco Katutsi quoted the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan on the prevalence of corruption. He said corruption was a crime of immense proportions that must be stamped out. He added that greed should be punished.

Jamwa's lawyer, David Mpanga, pleaded for lenience. He said there was no evidence that his client personally benefited from the three billion-shilling loss.

Mpanga said Jamwa was young, intelligent and one of a few professional accountants in Uganda. He argued that if Jamwa were convicted, he would never be able to practice his profession again.

However, Justice Katutsi stuck to his guns. He sentenced Jamwa to prison for 12 years and ordered that on release, all public body should not employ the former NSSF boss for at least ten years.

The Jamwa-NSSF case was Justice Katutsi's last before retirement. He made sure to emphasize his disdain for the corrupt and his frustration that state prosecutors appear to pick and choose which cases of graft to bring to court.

Justice Katutsi questioned why other senior government officials named in the NSSF scandal were not prosecuted.

Apart from David Jamwa, his former deputy managing director Mondo Kagonyera, the former finance minister Ezra Suruma and the NSSF board were also implicated in the case.

Sydney Asubo, the state prosecutor in charge of the Jamwa case, defended the position of the Director of Public Prosecutions. He said only people against who there was sufficient evidence of crime could be produced in court.

Jamwa's lawyer listened to the sentencing solemnly. As his client faces more than a decade behind bars, he promises to appeal the ruling and to seek justice for Jamwa.